Creating a Dating Site

SitPoMk

SitPoMk

New member
Dec 19, 2008
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Chicago, IL
I'm thinking about making a dating site. For the people that have started social networks before, what kind of challenges did you face? How much did you have to throw down for user acquisition before people actually start paying for the premium service? Do you suggest making it a paid service while it's still in it's baby stages in terms of number of users?

I'm confident in my coding ability and that I can make a service unmatched by most sites. I'm thinking about growing locally. From town to town so I don't have to start with a 50K investment.

I'm pretty much wanting to do this for one reason. Owning a successful web property is something that will make me feel successful and I think it's the only thing that will. Even earning 1000 bucks a day as an affiliate makes me feel like a short-term hustler instead of an accomplished business owner because I get that 4 bucks per lead and forget it ever happened. With this, I can make something from scratch and watch it grow into something great. I'm sure most of you have felt that before. Most people do it with blogs but I hate writing, i love coding.
 


Congrats for picking a niche that's saturated as hell. You're going to want to go a bit more specific than just dating. Like BBW dating, black dating or w.e, although there are already sites like those out there.

As for user acquisition: if it's straight dating, then you're going to want to get a shitload of female users (or at least fake having lots). If you have that, guys will come out in hordes.

Also, if you look at POF, it's been growing like mad, and for a long ass time their UI has looked like shit. BUT IT GOT THE JOB DONE. Just cause you can code, and add a fuckload of features that you think will people will want, doesn't mean THEY will want them.

Anyways, your strategy to target specific cities is probably the best way to go for now. The biggest bitch is acquiring the first 1000 or so initial users, after that it gets a bit easier. That was my biggest challenge for a somewhat related site.

Anyways, as for going paid or not. I'd say go free initially. If it's paid in the "baby stages", you're going to be getting people cancelling on their first month due to lack of other users.

But you know what? You won't know until you fucking try it. Split test that model like a ppc campaign. =P

Good luck bro
 
You should make a not dating site. It's like a dating site, but not really. Basically, just take twitter, formspring, 750words, and chatrollette, and make it into a not dating site. Oh, and make sure your name ends with a r or l or peoeple won't remember it.

Add some flash games, and plenty of profile achievements (like not nexting people, asking/answering peoples formsprings/continuing messages with people), and maybe some redeemable prizes, and you've got yourself a not dating site.

Also, just make some recommendation engine about things people like. Make a dynamic personality test that asks you questions throughout the registration process, and makes you put in important values like how much you weigh, height, cooking ability, bwh measurements as well.
 
juntao65 said:
Congrats for picking a niche that's saturated as hell. You're going to want to go a bit more specific than just dating. Like BBW dating, black dating or w.e, although there are already sites like those out there.

As for user acquisition: if it's straight dating, then you're going to want to get a shitload of female users (or at least fake having lots). If you have that, guys will come out in hordes.

Also, if you look at POF, it's been growing like mad, and for a long ass time their UI has looked like shit. BUT IT GOT THE JOB DONE. Just cause you can code, and add a fuckload of features that you think will people will want, doesn't mean THEY will want them.

Anyways, your strategy to target specific cities is probably the best way to go for now. The biggest bitch is acquiring the first 1000 or so initial users, after that it gets a bit easier. That was my biggest challenge for a somewhat related site.

Anyways, as for going paid or not. I'd say go free initially. If it's paid in the "baby stages", you're going to be getting people cancelling on their first month due to lack of other users.

But you know what? You won't know until you fucking try it. Split test that model like a ppc campaign. =P

Good luck bro
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Thanks man, how's that somewhat related site doing now?

I've been thinking about spreading it virally. Something like facebook does by having you invite your email contacts once you register. How has that worked out for you?
 
This is a horrible idea that every newbie has. Probably best to not waste your time on it but if you want to then go ahead.
 
I've bought/refurbed and developed from scratch a lot of sites in my day and sold a lot as well. To this day, the only deal I ever lost money on was my "awesome new dating site" idea that I had a few years back. I spent way too much money on it to make sure it had cool shit like video chat and other shit that most dating sites didn't have. I populated the databases with thousands of fake women from all over the US/Canada and even had the profiles log themselves on every few days.

Great learning experience though. I sold the site a couple years ago at a loss but I still get referral checks from AFF every now and then so maybe one day I'll break even on it.

People are going to go to the sites that already have members, that's why it's so hard to get a new one off the ground. But if you can SEO the thing on a local basis and set it up to make referral money from ads and fake profiles that send users to AFF or Match or whatever you'll probably do a lot better than setting it up on a membership basis.
 
I'd go Free ( look at POF and do what works in others )
and KISS ( keep it simple stupid )
Also, look at how richard branson likes saturated markets ;)

HH
 
Yep, everyone thinks of this one, especially coders. I'd say it's too saturated nowadays unless you have an original niche. Even then, every niche which could get a profitable amount of traffic is probably saturated too.

Instead, perhaps you do the free / adsense route (like POF) with a different type of site entirely?
 
juntao65 said:
Congrats for picking a niche that's saturated as hell.
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kingfish said:
This is a horrible idea that every newbie has. Probably best to not waste your time on it but if you want to then go ahead.
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TFLNetwork said:
You are an idiot. Don't waste you're time.
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praxus said:
Yep, everyone thinks of this one, especially coders. I'd say it's too saturated nowadays unless you have an original niche.
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Markus probably heard many similar responses when he first talked about starting Plenty of Fish.

The search engine niche seemed saturated when Google was started.
 
Here's the niche I want:

IOnlyWantToSeeYouOnFridayAndSaturdayWhenImDrunkWithFriendsAndYouBetterBeGoodWithTheGroupCuzYoureNotGonnaBeMyPuppyDogAndDealWithTheFactThatIWillBootyCallYouOnTuesdayNightAt11pmAfterImDoneCodingAndHustlingAllDayLong.com
 
Berto said:
Here's the niche I want:

IOnlyWantToSeeYouOnFridayAndSaturdayWhenImDrunkWithFriendsAndYouBetterBeGoodWithTheGroupCuzYoureNotGonnaBeMyPuppyDogAndDealWithTheFactThatIWillBootyCallYouOnTuesdayNightAt11pmAfterImDoneCodingAndHustlingAllDayLong.com
Click to expand...

AdultFriendFinder.com
 
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